Metalheads may be brainier than classics lovers

The next time your windows are vibrating to the sound of your teenager's Metallica CD, you can thank your lucky stars that they aren't listening to Mozart instead. Scientists have just discovered that the lazy stereotype that kids who listening to classical music are brainy, and kids who prefer thrash metal are boneheads, is far from the truth.

A study at the University of Warwick of 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth found that metalheads were often extremely intelligent and used the music of alienation to help them become better socially adjusted.

'There is literature that links heavy metal to poor academic performance and delinquency but we found a group that contradicts that,' said researcher Stuart Cadwallader. 'We are looking at a group with lower than average self-esteem that does not feel quite as well adjusted. They feel more stressed out and turn to heavy metal as a way of relieving that stress. Perhaps gifted people experience more pressure than their peers and use the music to purge this negativity.'

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